Many years ago I attended a presentation by Michael Gerber (author of “The E-Myth” and related books).  During the presentation he made a number of comments about small businesses and their owners some of which you would expect and many which you would not (at least at that time).

Imagine attending your football team’s game and being unable to determine whether it’s winning or losing.  How frustrating! Most people would probably leave or at least be unlikely to attend another game unless they were certain a scoreboard with the correct scores was in operation.  A sometimes surprising fact is that many small businesses operate in this manner.  There is no up to date scoreboard to provide feedback on whether the team is “winning”.

If you own or manage a small business ask yourself the following questions and answer them with brutal honesty.

It’s a pretty simple question but not easily answered by many small business owners.  (Too) many answer the question with something like “to make a profit”.  This confuses the expected outcome with the purpose of the business.